Bookmarks:
One: Exegesis on the Wiccan Rede
Two: Aporrheton 5 - The Craft Laws
Three: Reactions to "The Laws" and Further Commentaries
Four: The New Book of the Law
Five: An Alternative to The Craft: The Manifesto of Atheist Paganism

One: Exegesis on the Wiccan Rede
by Judy Harrow

originally published in HARVEST - Volume 5, Number 3 (Oimelc, 1985); second publication: THE HIDDEN PATH - Volume X, Number 2 Beltane, 1987)

All religions began with somebody's sudden flashing insight, enlightenment, a shining vision. Some mystic found the way and the words to share the vision, and, sharing it, attracted followers. The followers may repeat those precise and poetic words about the vision until they congeal into set phrases, fused language, repeated by rote and without understanding. Cliches begin as great wisdom - that's why they spread so fast - and end as ritual phrases, heard but not understood. Living spirituality so easily hardens to boring religious routine, maintained through guilt and fear, or habit and social opportunism - any reason but joy.

We come to the Craft with a first generation's joy of discovery, and a first generation's memory of bored hours of routine worship in our childhood. Because we have known the difference, it is our particular challenge to find or make ways to keep the Craft a living, real experience for our grandchildren and for the students of our students.

I think the best of these safeguards is already built into the Craft as we know it, put there by our own good teachers. On our Path, the mystic experience itself is shared, not just the fruits of mysticism. We give all our students the techniques, and the protective/supportive environment that enable almost every one of them to Draw the Moon and/or Invoke the God. This is an incredibly radical change from older religions, even older Pagan religions, in which the only permissible source of inspiration has been to endlessly reinterpret and reapply the vision of the Founder (the Bible, the Book of the Law, the Koran, ... ). The practice of Drawing the Moon is the brilliant crown of the Craft.

But notice how often, in the old myths, every treasure has its pitfalls? I think I'm beginning to see one of ours. Between the normal process of original visions clotting into cliche, and our perpetual flow of new inspiration, we are in danger of losing the special wisdom of those who founded the modern Craft. I do not think we should assiduously preserve every precious word. My love for my own Gardnerian tradition does not blind me to our sexist and heterosexist roots. And yet, I want us to remain identifiably Witches and not meld into some homogeneous "New Age" sludge. For this, I think we need some sort of anchoring in tradition to give us a sense of identity. Some of the old sayings really do crystallize great wisdom as well, life-affirming Pagan wisdom that our culture needs to hear.

So I think it's time for a little creative borrowing from our neighbors. Christians do something they call "exegesis;" Jews have a somewhat similar process called "midrash." What it is something between interpretation and meditation, a very concentrated examination of a particular text. The assumption often is that every single word has meaning (cabalists even look at the individual letters). Out of this inspired combination of scholarship and daydream comes the vitality of those paths whose canon is closed. The contemporary example, of course, is Christian Liberation Theology, based on a re-visioning of Jesus that would utterly shock John Calvin.

Although our canon is not closed - and the day it is is the day I quit - I'm suggesting that we can use a similar process to renew the life of the older parts of our own still-young heritage.

So, I'd like to try doing some exegesis on an essential statement of the Craft way of life. Every religion has some sort of ethic, some guideline for what it means to live in accordance with this particular mythos, this worldview. Ours, called the Wiccan Rede, is one of the most elegant statements I've heard of the principle of situational ethics. Rather than placing the power and duty to decide about behavior with teachers or rulebooks, the Rede places it exactly where it belongs, with the actor.

Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill: AN IT HARM NONE, DO WHAT YOU WILL.

I'd like to start with the second phrase first, and to take it almost word by word.

Do what YOU will. This is the challenge to self-direction, to figure out what we want, and not what somebody else wants for us or from us. All of us are subject to tremendous role expectations and pressures, coming from our families, our employers, our friends, society in general. It's easy to just be molded, deceptively easy to become a compulsive rebel and reflexively do the opposite of whatever "they" seem to want. Living by the Rede means accepting the responsibility to assess the results of our actions and to choose when we will obey, confront or evade the rules.

Do what you WILL. This is the challenge to introspection, to know what we really want beyond the whim of the moment. The classic example is that of the student who chooses to study for an exam rather than go to a party, because what she really wants is to be a doctor. Again, balance is needed. Always going to the library rather than the movies is the road to burnout, not the road to a Nobel. What's more, there are others values in life, such as sensuality, intimacy, spirituality, that get ignored in a compulsively long-term orientation. So, our responsibility is not to mechanically follow some rule like "always choose to defer gratification in your own long-term self interest," but to really listen within, and to really choose, each time.

DO what you will. This is the challenge to action. Don't wait for Prince Charming or the revolution. Don't blame your mother or the system. Make a realistic plan that includes all your assets. Be sure to include magic, both the deeper insights and wisdoms of divination and the focusing of will and energy that comes from active workings. Then take the first steps right now. But, beware of thoughtless action, which is equally dangerous. For example, daydreaming is needed, to envision a goal, to project the results of actions, to check progress against goals, sometimes to revise goals. Thinking and planning are necessary parts of personal progress. Action and thought are complementary; neither can replace the other.

When you really look at it, word by word, it sounds like a subtle and profound guide for life, does it not? Is it complete? Shall "do what you will" in fact be "the whole of the law" for us? I think not. The second phrase of the Rede discusses the individual out of context. Taken by itself, "DO WHAT YOU WILL" would produce a nastily competitive society, a "war of each against all" more bitter than what we now endure. That is, it would if it were possible. Happily, it's just plain not.

Pagan myth and modern biology alike teach us that our Earth is one interconnected living sphere, a whole system in which the actions of each affect all (and this is emphatically not limited to humankind) through intrinsic, organic feedback paths. As our technology amplifies the effects of our individual actions, it becomes increasingly critical to understand that these actions have consequences beyond the individual; consequences that, by the very nature of things, come back to the individual as well. Cooperation, once "merely" an ethical ideal, has become a survival imperative. Life is relational, contextual. Exclusive focus on the individual Will is a lie and a deathtrap.

The qualifying "AN IT HARM NONE," draws a Circle around the individual Will and places each of us firmly within the dual contexts of the human community and the complex life-form that is Mother Gaia. The first phrase of the Rede directs us to be aware of results of our actions projected not only in time, as long-term personal outcomes, but in space - to consider how actions may effect our families, co-workers, community, and the life of the Earth as a whole, and to take those projections into account in our decisions.

But, like the rest of the Rede, "an it harm none" cannot be followed unthinkingly. It is simply impossible for creatures who eat to harm none. Any refusal to decide or act for fear of harming someone is also a decision and an action, and will create results of some kind. When you consider that "none" also includes ourselves, it becomes clear that what we have here is a goal and an ideal, not a rule.

The Craft, assuming ethical adulthood, offers us no rote rules. We will always be working on incomplete knowledge. We will sometimes just plain make mistakes. Life itself, and life-affirming religion, still demands that we learn, decide, act, and accept the results.

Many traditions about the Craft are scattered throughout recent books; a sizable bunch is the 161 "Craft Laws" you can find in Lady Sheba or in June Johns. Many of these traditions are merely definitions of what the Craft is, and so of the context within which the other traditions should be understood; they are "true" merely because (and insofar as) they are internally consistent. In contrast, some of the other traditions seem to be shrewd, hard-won observations about how psychic energy (as dealt with in the Craft) seems to work, and THESE are the important ones.

The psychic reality that these traditions concern has been called by many names: spiritualists call it "the upper astral plane"; Jungians, the "superconscious"; the Bhagavad Gita, "the True Self"; many mystics, the "godhead"; Isaac Bonewits, the "Switchboard"; and very much so on. Any such name is an attempt to map (part of) a psychic reality that seems all too willing to accommodate itself to any map you use, and you will get nowhere in trying to understand that reality if you don't keep its plasticity firmly in mind. In the Craft we conceive that reality as the Goddess (as #11 below states); She is both very real and a metaphor. She is real because human energy goes into making Her real; She exists as a "thought form on the astral plane," yet She can manifest physically whenever She wants to. She does not exist independently of mankind, but She is most thoroughly independent of any one person or group. (And precisely the same is true of any concept of divinity that people put energy into maintaining.) She is a metaphor because, great though She may be, She is finite, like any other human concept, whereas reality is infinite. And why do we need the Goddess, or any divinity at all? Because the human mind seems unable to grasp an undifferentiated infinity. By creating our own divinities, we create mental steps for ourselves, up which we can mount, toward realizing ourselves as divine.

The Craft Laws, then, are not "13 Commandments" from on high; they are merely unproved hypotheses about how SOME psychic reality seems to work. They should be treated like any other hypotheses: respected as being the best guesses going, but continually tested to find out how valid they are and to generate better guesses. Naturally, you cannot test them by breaking them, any more than you can test the law of gravity by jumping off a ten-story building. Instead, you draw conclusions from them, or base predictions on them, and try workings to see if the latter hold up. The 13 below are ones that have held up so far under such testing; some we had in an earlier set of 13 did not. In compiling this set, I culled through all the traditions I could find, picking out especially (or thinking up) the most general statements, which would include many of the other traditions as special cases; you should be able to spot examples of this by carefully comparing Aporrheton 10 with this one. Certain of the laws here (the ones typed in all caps) seem necessary and reliable to us, and we will not tolerate any bending (let alone breaking) of them, for the reasons discussed under #12 below. Many of the rest are here, not because we understand them, but because we don't.

I always approach traditional occult systems (astrology, the Tarot, the Craft, etc.) on the assumption that they consist of a terse, multileveled coding of hard-earned information about something real and important. It is almost as silly to think you've discovered everything such a system might mean as it is to think it meaningless. The only way to find out what such a system means is to get in there and work with it until you speak its language fluently. Then you will likely find (at least, this has been my experience) that the system gives you a map of reality, but of many places, not just one place, that it gives you a way to work with classes of relationships that hold for many different kinds of people, things, and situations. That is, these traditional systems are very much like nonquantitative algebras or calculi; a symbol in one of them is not going to have an invariant and simple meaning, or even the same meaning in two different context, anymore than X is going to have the same numerical value in two different algebra problems./p>

It therefore seems safest to keep these Craft laws whose meanings are not obvious in mind, and hope that further "experimentation" will shed some light on them. Of course, to get any results at all in dealing with psychic phenomena, you have to be optimistic and openminded. If you already hold a firm belief that you know what the Craft Laws mean, or that they are "Absolutely True," or the opposite, then your mind is closed, and you can't learn anything new. That is, you're not supposed to "believe" in the Craft Laws, or memorize them; you're supposed to UNDERSTAND them, else you've missed the whole point of why we have them.

1. YOU CANNOT USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT TO CREATE OR INCREASE BAD KARMA, EXCEPT FOR YOURSELF.
2. YOU MAY NOT USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT TO AFFECT ANOTHER PERSON IN ANY WAY, UNLESS YOU HAVE THAT PERSON'S EXPLICIT PERMISSION.

These two are best discussed together, since they replace the inadequate statement one often finds that "You may not use the arts of the Craft to work malevolent magic." Notice that the first one says "cannot," being an observation of fact, whereas the second says "may not," being a statement of ethics.

The first law states that, IN THE LONG RUN, you can harm no one but yourself. You cannot benefit from trying to harm another, because you are part of the fabric of reality, not separate from it. You get whatever you give, because getting and giving are the same, just as the trough and the crest are the same wave. If you set up a pattern of nasty, callous selfishness around yourself, that is what you have projected onto the world, and that is all you will experience. If you act out of genuine affection and concern for others, you receive their affection and concern as well. The psychic (or life) field seems to have a single polarity: to create positive effects for yourself, you must create positive effects for others. And this observation applies not just to the arts of the Craft, nor to all the psychic arts, but to life in general.

Now, what the second law points out is that it is the OTHER person's opinion that determines whether the effects of what you do are positive or not. This law is the equivalent of the Craft's version of the "Golden Rule": "Do unto others not as YOU wish to be done under, but as THEY wish to be done unto--for their tastes may damned well differ from yours." (Thus this law, most usefully, eliminates any arguments over how one defines "good" or "evil.") It follows that you may not do something for what YOU think is someone else's "own good"; you have no right to make that decision. You may not even work a healing unless you have permission from the person to be healed; it is unethical to hit an unprepared person with a jolt of energy. You may work without prior permission for someone whose karma you are already PERSONALLY involved with (as a mother for her child, a man for his wife, etc.), but you may not accept anyone's opinion that another would give permission if asked; no matter how close two people might be, they neither own one another nor carry each other's karma, and so cannot give such permission to another.

3. You cannot use the arts of the Craft to win fame, fortune, power, or any other sort of material or social advantage.

This again is an observation of how all the psychic arts work, not just those of the Craft. WHY they work thus is another question--THAT they do work thus is well-known. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that if your major motive for working is (or becomes) a desire for fame, fortune, etc., you soon get into a headspace where psychic abilities simply cannot function; many erstwhile psychics throughout history have lost their abilities and become charlatans, because they did not know this rule. You can (as many people do) make your living by a psychic art, as long as you charge only enough to live comfortably by your society's standards; it is only going on a "power trip" that would endanger your abilities. Similarly, doing trips on people without their knowledge (or the magician's favorite project, raising "demons" in order to control them) is another sort of power trip, and will have exactly the same effect on your abilities. A more traditional Craft statement of this rule would be, "The arts of the Craft are the gift of the Goddess; if you misuse them, She will take them back."

4. You cannot use the arts of the Craft for show, in pretence, but only in earnest, and only in need.

If you work a ritual, it will have effects, whether you think you want it to or not. Therefore you cannot "pretend" to throw a hex, for example; the Lady does not recognize pretence. On the other hand, you cannot work the arts successfully just because you WANT to, as a head trip; the Lady won't cooperate. You have to need the energy or the information for some real purpose, else you can't tap into it. (At least, this is what meaning I have seen in this law so far.)

5. The arts of the Craft can only be worked in a circle with at least one other person of the opposite sex.

This "law" is actually just a set of definitions, though important ones, as follows.

(a) The arts of the Craft are defined as those that will work only under these conditions; psychic arts that work under other conditions are thus not necessarily part of the Craft.
(b) A coven consists of at least one man and one woman; it cannot consist of all men or all women.
(c) If you're working by yourself, you are working as a magician, not as a witch--but you are still obliged by your oaths to the Lady to observe the other Craft Laws. (For more on this last point, see #12.)

6. A man must learn the arts of the Craft from a woman, a woman from a man, except between parent and child.

Since #5 defines the arts of the Craft as those that only work in the circle, obviously they can only be learned in the circle. If you're working with just one other person, that person must be of the opposite sex, else the arts won't work, and nothing can be learned. Thus it seems logical that this tradition applies only to a one-to-one teacher-apprentice relationship. If you're not in the circle, and/or are teaching a mixed group of men and women, obviously there's no problem. (This tradition MAY imply that the arts WILL work for two women if they are mother and daughter, or for father and son, since part of the key to the working, and the learning, seems to be the emotional closeness between the two; consider section IV, last para, in Aporrheton 10.) 7. You must always pay whatever price is asked, without haggling or complaining, when you buy something to be used for the Craft.

The Gardnerian Craft Laws (section IV, para 4, of Apor. 10) allow the arts of the Craft to be used to persuade someone to sell something, as long as his asking price is met, but this would violate our Law #2. In contrast, this law here is a safeguard against using your psychic talents not-quite-consciously to take unfair advantage of someone.

8. You cannot belong to more than one coven at a time.

Any two covens will likely have rather different symbolic systems for their workings, different understandings of the Craft Laws, and so on. Trying to work with both would then tend to confuse you, snarl up your communication lines to the Lady, and reduce the efficiency of your learning and working. Of course, if two covens do have identical systems (which could only happen if they shared a common ancestry), they could be considered the same coven, for the purposes under discussion here.

In its original context (see section III, Apor. 10), this law seems merely an observation of fact: even if you're working with two or more covens, you will only BELONG to one of them; your loyalty will be with that one, and if there were a parting of the ways, you would stick with it. Obviously, in time of persecution, divided loyalties and disagreements could be a source of great danger, and would have to be forbidden. Also, in a Craft structure where the High Priestess has final authority within each coven, she would not much like having a Witch she is trying to train be influenced by another Priestess. True, these considerations don't apply to us, but they are valid as reasons for the tradition.

9. None can coven with others they cannot agree with.

Stated this way, this law becomes an etymological tautology, for "coven" means "to agree" (or "to come together"). The more those in a coven can agree on the interpretation of the Craft Laws, on the symbolic system used for workings, on the purposes of the workings, the greater the coven's effectiveness will be. Naturally, minor disagreements will crop up regularly in a group of individualists; they are not what this law concerns. Rather, it applies to disagreements (or bad interpersonal feelings) that are strong enough that they are amplified by the group field, make the meeting unpleasant, and so make it impossible for the coven to work. For this reason--not, one may hope, out of mere in-group exclusiveness or arbitrariness--a coven must select its members carefully for compatibility. Also, since a coven is necessarily a "small group," many normal small-group processes will operate in it. These can be powerful, and emotionally very heavy, but there's nothing mysterious about them. Don't mistake them for something occult; that would lead you up a blind alley.

10. You must not betray the secrets that cannot be told.

The secrets in question here are Her secrets, the ones discussed in the Caution to the Novices. Insofar as these Craft Laws are simply observations of how psychic reality works (and it is for that, really, that we should value them) then they are "self-enforcing" like any other statement of fact. So what this law means is:

(a) Don't commit suicide;
(b) Don't violate your own sense of your self-integrity;
(c) Don't "sell your soul to the devil";
(d) If you stick your finger in a flame, you'll get burned.

11. ALL POWER IN THE CRAFT COMES FROM THE GODDESS.

This law is another observation about how psychic reality works. The energy that is raised in the circle comes not from any one person, nor from all the persons in the coven as individuals, but from somewhere else: from the Goddess, or from some source ever further beyond. Such energy, like all psychic energy, comes THROUGH you, not from you; it is not your personal property, for you are merely a channel for it, a custodian of it. You do "own" your body and your individual personality, and you are entitled to the fruits of your labors, but the energy is not yours to exploit for your own benefit, for any human being could (potentially) learn to do anything you can do. Therefore, although you have a right to earn a living, the Craft is free to all, being a gift of the Goddess: you may not charge anyone even a penny to be initiated into the Craft or to learn its arts. Of course, you should insist on having your actual expenses covered; the Craft Laws do not require you to operate at a loss or to coddle freeloaders. But you may not make money from practicing the Craft as a religion, and if you try, you will lose all access to the power.

This law also means that the only genuine initiations in the Craft are those worked (though not necessarily directly) by the Goddess Herself. That is, if you have the power from the Goddess, credentials from other people are unnecessary, and if you don't have any power from the Goddess, credentials from other people are useless. Hence there can be no authority in the Craft outside each coven.

This law also provides another definition: any power that comes from the Goddess could be part of the Craft; so any poet who has experienced the reality of the Muse is, to that extent, a Witch. Conversely, any energy that cannot be conceptualized as coming from the Goddess (and apparently there ARE such forms of the energy) is definitely not part of the Craft. (The tradition that the Priestess is supreme within the circle also appears to be a special case of this law, insofar as only the Priestess can incarnate the Goddess.)

12. IF SOMEONE INTENDS TO HARM YOU, YOU MAY USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT TO RESTRAIN HIM FROM DOING SO, BUT ONLY IF ALL IN THE COVEN AGREE THAT HE WILL IN NO WAY BE HARMED BY THE WORKING.

No matter what the provocation, trying to harm another will only create bad karma for yourself. So, although you have an absolute right to protect yourself, you must not retaliate. As is said in K'ung Fu, "Solve the problem, no less, no more." The reason why the coven must discuss the situation and agree on the workings is twofold:

(1) to allow cooler minds to prevail, for it is when one acts on impulse, out of anger, that one is most likely to overstep the line between self-defense and aggression; and
(2) because those in the coven, having taken an oath to help one another, and being linked by the generation of the group psychic field, will all share to some extent in any bad karma generated by any member's misuse of the arts.

If you are one who can only learn the hard way, say, by sticking your finger into a flame, you are of course free to burn your own fingers--but NOT if you are holding someone else's hand, which is exactly the situation if you belong to a coven. For its own self-preservation, a coven must therefore retain the right, as a last resort, to expel (and cut loose from the karma of) any member who persists in interfering in other people's lives without their permission or, of course, who attempts even blacker workings.

13. Always remember that all mankind and all creatures are equally children of the Goddess; therefore never boast or threaten, or do anything that might disgrace Her or your brothers and sisters in the Craft.

To blather thoughtlessly about the Craft, especially to persons who have no business knowing about your coven's affairs, not only drains your own energy and that of your coven, but also is a form of boasting, of using the Craft for self-aggrandizement, that will get you into the bad headspace law #3 warns about. More obviously, threatening to "hex" someone, even though you THINK you have no intention of doing so, violates the intent of laws 1 through 4, because you are playing games with the Lady, who just might decide to act on the threat, and because you are using the Craft (especially if you are known to be a Witch) to influence another against his will and to get your own way; furthermore, making such a threat reinforces the false impression most people have of the Craft, and so disgraces the Goddess. Again, since anyone could learn to do anything you can do, being a Witch doesn't make you any better than anyone else; put on airs, and the Lady will deflate you. Perhaps a good rule of thumb about discussing the Craft with outsiders is this: once you are convinced that someone's interest is sincere, then answer questions, fully and freely; but don't just volunteer information that has in no way been asked for, else you risk burdening that person with more information than he or she is able to cope with.

Three: Reactions to "The Laws"
and Further Commentaries

JOAN on the Witch Laws 8/22/81

Note: These are the comments of one of the early members of Proteus Coven on what we gave her to read about ethics and laws. All the material she had is still here, although a good deal has been added since then, so I thought her comments would also be interesting.
Judy Harrow

Reaction to "Traditional" - i.e. essentially Gardnerian - format

In many respects, as constricting as Catholicism without the administrative experience, intellectual prowess, or verbal expertise of Catholicism. If current researchers are correct, what we have is one man's fantasy (with jumbled and skewed sources) made everyone's obligation.

May be dealt with most effectively - especially as regards the reality of current practice and expectation - by juxtaposition with Lady Ikandkhop's masterful irony.

Reaction to Aporrheton 5 - [generally very good thinking, but still more traditional than my preference]

Paragraph Two: Good thinking on nature of Goddess - or any divinity. My agreement is reserved, uncertain, withheld.

Paragraph Three: Claims to have arrived at FIRMLY ("no bending") UNDISPROVEN hypotheses. This arouses natural suspicion in me. I disagree with some of his perceptions of FACTS.

I disagree violently with Laws 5 + 6. Heterosexuality is a strength, but not an essential. POLARITY OPERATES OUTSIDE [or INSIDE] BOUNDARIES OF ANATOMICAL EQUIPMENT AND HORMONES. AND THE CHARACTER - THE SACRED CHARACTER - OF THE WITCH IS WITHIN HE AT ONCE TRANSCENDENT AND DISCIPLINED SELF.

Law #7 is unnecessary. A silly bow to a misunderstood "Trad" law.

Law #8 is largely true, but makes no allowance for valid, honest (fair to all), and necessary transitional states many must pass through. Also sticks on "authority" peg, which has some necessity/validity but can easily get out of hand. I find HONESTY + COURTESY better yardsticks.

Law #9. True. But much of interpersonal tension (inevitable) can be worked out of God/dess' love and coven support-with-discipline prevail.

Law #10. The Great Mysteries must be lived out. And, without using Craft parlance, if another needs to hear them, they MUST BE VERBALIZED. TO DO LESS IS HARM, i.e., it is to allow another to drown when you're on shore and have a rope. But no missionary zeal! No proselytizing!!! That for which others are unready is foolishness for them and foolishness for the Witch. (It may also be subconscious power tripping. See agreement in Law #13.)

Law #11 - I agree with paragraphs one and two. Paragraph 3: saying that only the HPs incarnates the Goddess is inappropriate and - in my firm opinion - NOT FACTUAL. (note from Judy - as I interpret what he says there, it's that only WOMEN incarnate the Goddess. I also disagree with that, but it's less bad than Joan's reading that he limits it to the HPs only.) The Goddess is not bound by ceremonial elevations. She incarnates where and when She Damn Well Pleases! Re: "all initiations ..." - etc. - Ritual is crystallization of preexistent, potential, incipient reality and this actualization is not trivial.

Law #12 - Good caution on limits (ill defined where emotion runs high) or self-defense. But assumption rules out solo magic (his previous premise is that it isn't Wiccan) by corollary of group responsibility / group danger to all action. "Return to sender" is generally agreed as rule-of-thumb for defense. Practice has not disproven. This is a difficult area to define. Probably group consensus on this would help. Does "impossibility factor" negate danger? How about the verbal escape clause sometimes used? Obviously, I'm less sure of boundaries on this one than on any other.

Law #13 - Good idea. Rather an ideal than a norm.

OMISSION: APORRHETON does not mention Balance or Polarity concept except in male/female context. But these are valuable and central concepts.

I got the feeling this person is still ruled by fragments of left-over fear.

Starhawk is GREAT. But many people will need more codification than she offers.

I have to preface this by stating that I was first drawn to this work by Leigh Ann Hussey, and reacted very negatively to it. This will be my second time through these Laws, with comments that are SOLELY MY OWN OPINION. I know that Lady Galadriel put a lot of work (translate: sweat blood) into these Laws, and I am not attacking her or her work. Making my points without sounding negative would have been nice, but I have not been very successful at this; since several people have been asking me to put down *WHY* I didn't like them, I felt that getting the project over with would be better than struggling with a novel-length exercise in not offending anyone. To Lady Galadriel: I, too, have sweat blood over a reconstruction project similar to this (and I got lots of negative feedback, too). My finished copy, which includes the old "Burning Times" laws as a historical source or what to do when things *really* get bad, can be had from Leigh Ann, Judy Harrow, or downloaded from WeirdBase in St. Louis as "JRFLAWS.TXT". My heart goes out to you, but I am commenting on your Laws from my head only.

Notes:

On the Preface: The Book of the Law, or Liber Al, which Lady G. refers to as a primary source, is not the same as Craft law in most traditions as it was written by Aleister Crowley; it is, therefore, hardly a wonder why it was not found to be very pertinent by Lady G. If, indeed, Lady G.'s Book of the Law was *not* Liber Al, it is hard to understand where many of these Laws originated.

The Laws:

1. Form and Order? Ask a Discordian or Shamanic Craft type. The Laws were created for guidance, as the latter part of this Law attests.

2. Channels, and manifestation of the Source? This sounds more like New Age Christianity than Wicca. I should stop talking about the flowers in the language, although they are disconcerting and very distracting from the original goal of "readable, usable, and pertinent to the needs ..." I suppose I can just use the term "flowers" as my way of saying that the language is unnecessarily complicated when it really bothers me -- and most of these laws do fall in this category.

3. Oh, no. Not the Christian "Ye are as children" routine again. The Gods, in my training, wish us to grow, not perpetually remain children. To not test what they say is the same as channelling some unknown spirit and believing everything he/she says. We are growing, making the Gods proud, not belittling or mocking them.

4. This law is over-judgmental (something I am accused of being at times), and ignores the need for working with our shadow-side; I suppose naivete is the worst I can say about this Law. I can easily find better in Marion Weinstein's POSITIVE MAGIC...

5. The "Mothership" routine smacks of Close Encounters, but other than the children routine and some language problems, this one isn't too bad -- but isn't there something in an initiation ritual about us and the Gods being the same "but for a difference of power"? I would think Brothers and Sisters of the Gods would be better terminology -- feminists are welcome to reverse the wording.

6. Hmmm. Sounds like tithing to me. While it is certainly a good idea, we give back to the Gods all the time -- this would be making the meaningful ritual a mechanical one. Sustain its Priests and Priestesses? Paid (or fed) clergy? Shades of Paul! This part would still work in my tradition, since we are all priests and priestesses, but I know some that are different...

7. I can't see the purpose of this Law, and know of no corresponding Law in the Laws I have come across. It sounds like the God of the Christians again, making people the way they are and then judging them for being that way.

8. A direct statement would be better. Who do you know in these times that goes around weighing silver? Is this a modern metaphor? I don't think so.

9. Does not parse. Sounds good, though...

10. This sounds like it's setting up the teacher as infallible -- shut up and listen. Also, while I hear Karma used frequently in Craft discussions, it is because it is a useful concept for us; however, this is the first time I have seen the Lords of Karma enthroned in Craft Law.

11. I could have taken the Golden Rule in one of its permutations, but this is much more akin to the concept of "Sin" than that of Karma.

12. "You must not be a teller of tales..."? What, we are to have no Bards in the Craft? If this law means that gossiping is not a good thing, why doesn't it say so? And "must hold no malice" indicates that we are not allowed to be human again -- true, it is better for the Craft that we all be as a loving family, but there are other ways to deal with the problems caused by personality conflicts than to outlaw legitimate feelings.

13. Flowers. Old Law. (Meaning that, other than difference in wording, this is the same as the "Old Laws", i.e., Lady Sheba and others.)

14. Oh, boy! Priestess Knows Best (and will be happy to be responsible for *you*). If someone asks me a question, give them the straightest answer I can, and without phoning up my Priestess for permission to do so. I am a trained, adult Witch, and am capable both of making my own decisions *and* taking the consequences for making a wrong decision. The "You must not put stumbling blocks..." sounds like the old parental admonishment, "Don't put beans in your ears." The Christians have enough stumbling blocks of their own; I don't think ours would even be noticed, and so are unnecessary.

15. The key words are in the Preface: readable, usable, and pertinent. "Fetters" and "woe" are not very meaningful words in this half of the 20th century. Not sure about the use of "souls", either, since that seems to be mostly a Christian concern. Remember, Lady G. said that she reworded some of these laws "to make them clearer and more understandable". I think she missed here.

16. Sounds like "Trust in God; He will provide." Where is the Craft basis for this Law?

17. If you kill someone magickally, accidentally or otherwise, you should be sacrificed to atone for it? My Goddess demands nothing in sacrifice. It would be far better to get into therapy and see how you could forgive yourself and help others to forgive you (I'm using "forgive" as a psychological, not religious, term). No problem with the first sentence.

18. Could be said more clearly.

19. The source for this, especially the final sentence, seems to be Jesus in Revelation. "Many say, Lord, Lord, but I know them not..." etc.

20. Sounds like, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God in vain". Either that is what this law is saying, or it needs to be clearer.

21. Old Law. I would have worded it, "In any disputes among the Wicca..."

22. Old Law.

23. To me, my magickal tools are channels between what is within me and what is outside of me (on the magickal planes, which frequently intersect with the planes of reality). Still, Do Not Haggle is Old Law.

24. Old Law, except for the semantical substitution of "Power" for "Art" and the use of the judgmental terms "evil" and "unworthy".

25. "Thou shalt not steal"? Hinted-at consequences are unnecessary.

26. I don't understand "Show honor" as a phrase, and the last phrase is not comprehensible to me.

27. "Those who are of the Wicca shall not own slaves," -- good idea, although I have never seen it included in Craft Law. The rest of this sentence is again unclear and/or unnecessary justification. "Nor shall you take as a pledge any person's life,"; well, the Laws of Karma (if you accept them, which these Laws purport to) demand otherwise from time to time, and again, this has not been found necessary in any other set of Craft Laws I have seen.

28. This is the second time the Golden Rule has been quoted in a faulty permutation. "If a stranger sojourns with you...they shall be as one of the Circle..." What, we're going to invite total strangers into our rites just because this Law says so? There are enough Laws that contradict this already. This doesn't sound right.

29. This came straight out of Leviticus, and also exists in Baha'i law in a slightly clearer form. It's nice that we're getting ecumenical, but what is the need for this in Craft Law? The Threefold Law applies, and is easier to understand.

30. The Good Wiccan Housekeeping Seal is required for Circle?

31. Not a Wiccan Law. "Cleanliness is next to god/dessliness" would be a shorter way of phrasing this. Although the old customs (NOT laws) require bathing prior to a ritual, even that has been used to "find" Witches with in some areas (they're clean and smell nice -- they must be seducing our men for Satan!).

32. Not Law, but a start; I believe none should die without someone having cared for them; and that death with dignity is the hoped-for ideal. Many of you already know that I'm initiating action toward Pagan hospice, funeral, and cemetery care. The judgement about "their actions" is for the Dark Lord to make.

33. Threefold Law is all you need here. Anything else is moral judgement.

34. Amended version: "Let those who desire union as a couple (or other forms as might be desirable, such as a triad or a group relationship) be handfasted, sharing their love in a manner they and the Gods find pleasing." Children are not necessary for shared love (and often separate the parents from their mutual desires), and there is no need to deny handfasting to couples not wanting children. I also am not certain that this needs to be a Law.

35. "The Law of the Goddess is that none of the Wicca shall take and wed someone who they do not love." Period.

36. Not Law. Also uses "brethren", another male term. (Anyone who has read my revision of Gardnerian Craft Law should have noticed the near-total lack of gender terminology.)

END OF PART ONE
-------------------

PART TWO

37. The first sentence is incomprehensible, immaterial, or both. This law is very flowery, and I would love to know what Lady G. extracted it from.

38. Old Law: "Never boast, never threaten..." seems to be the root here - and is much clearer in that form.

39. The concept of magickal purity is one of ritual magick, not the Craft. This Law is, in letter and spirit, one of ritual magick. While some traditions of the Craft do get into ritual magick, that still does not make this "proper" as Craft Law.

40. Old Law was both clearer and less "new-agey".

41. WHERE hath the Goddess said these things? Nowhere in my tradition, and they sound more like things She may have said in circle -- certainly no need to canonize them.

42. Back to Leviticus. This is far too judgmental for any tradition I am familiar with. There also seems to be confusion between "work" as in make money and "work" as in learning and teaching the things of the Craft.

43. A sacred trust? This explains why Grove of the Unicorn built a sanctuary in Georgia, but I have never seen this expressed as a requirement. Most traditions are not getting over being hidden; this Law requires total openness. I think it's dangerous to do this in most areas, and having the Goddess decree (here) that we should do something that could harm Her Witches (something She expressly forbids us to do in the Old Laws) doesn't feel right. What is the source of this one? It appears to be the inner feelings of some Witch or Witches, which is not good enough to pass off as Craft Law.

44. While I have been taught this, it was under "What We Do" rather than "The Law". The style of presentation sounds too much like what YHWH would have written as a law rather than the Goddess I know...

45. Am I reading this wrong, or is this saying "Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy"? We need to set aside a whole day(s)? I don't think that's realistic in these times, although it might have been in paleolithic times.

46. Not necessary. Any teacher will give you this information.

47. Definitely flowers. Let each Witch keep a book (she even dropped the "in their own hand" part). What else is necessary?

48. Clumsy, with too many "they"s in spots; How about, "Study the signs of the Gods in all their forms; these shall guide your thoughts to the Gods and the Gods will take notice of you. Turn your thoughts and worship to the Gods, not the signs and statues of them."

49. The original here says "If *any* in the Craft owns any land...guard all monies of the Craft..." thus widening the circle of love beyond just the Circle you are a part of.

50. Old Law. I feel this could be done a bit more clearly.

51. Extremely Crowleyian in content, where the content can be determined. It sounds like it is favoring asceticism "for the good of the Craft...". Unclear rules like this have led to excesses in other religions they have appeared in.

52. NOT CRAFT LAW. Paul would have loved to have this kind of law as stated by Christ, but it wasn't true then and it isn't true now. IF WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TAKE MONEY FOR THE ART, HOW COME WE CAN BE ALLOWED TO TAKE GIFTS?????

53. Taken as an extension of #52, this law repulses me; however, having deleted #52, and deleting "offerings of ... money", it could be OK. But it is totally unnecessary unless you're trying to set yourself up as the First Church of Wicca, N.A., complete with Christian abuses of power. In any loving circle, people will bring the incense, or the cakes and/or wine, or work together on building a new altar. This is already covered in the laws above, though.

54. Harmony will be restored by working toward harmony, not by donating to your favorite non-profit Temple. Again, the emphasis on giving makes me think of televangelists ("I need to make the payment on my Inspirational Cadillac"). I don't know what problems Grove of the Unicorn has been having in keeping up their payments on the land or whatever, but their problems should not be used as a lever to change Craft Law (if indeed this is the object of these laws).

55. Once more, this law either comes out of ritual magic or televangelism (or both). Every Witch should know (or know how to look up) the proper times for a ritual, and should be able to offer it up themselves ("thru the most proper medium" could mean "Pay the Priestess" or it could mean "use the right tools" -- if it is *not* intended to mean the latter, then this law has no basis in the Craft).

56. Old Law, and one of the most important Craft Laws.

57. Separating this Law from the previous one causes a minor problem -- it now becomes "Never break the Laws" (and there are some dillies in this set) instead of "Never break *this* Law".

58. The "Mighty Ones" decided for us "in days of old" that we cannot use the Art against anyone? A shirking of responsibility is again evident. While the same precept occurs in my set of the Laws, it is obviously a decision made in the light of persecutions, not something decreed from on high.

59. Sentence fragments. (sic) This is a subject that is not in the Laws (but is in the Charge of the Goddess, without the God's side of things).

END OF PART TWO
-------------------

PART THREE

60. Why do we need "the dimly remembered dawn of ages past" and Atlantis to make this point? This is the only version I've seen that goes beyond remembered history.

61. Should be combined with #60, and have more of the excessive verbiage dropped. Oh, no! Not another cry of "the evil of chaos" again! How can these people even *talk* to Discordians??? Any set of Laws that is intended to be Craft-inclusive must not include value judgements, especially using the words "good", "evil", and "chaos". This law seems to be wishing for the time when we were in power; every set of Laws I've seen prior to this one would settle for a time in which we are tolerated or accepted.

62. I don't understand what this is trying to say -- it seems to fluctuate between "No more secrets", "Only a few secrets", and "Don't tell anybody anything". Since all three of these have been expressed above, I'm not sure this law is needed; it hardly even adds to the confusion.

63. The change from "always heeding the Messenger" to "always heeding the messages" is a little dangerous, but otherwise, this is Old Law.

64. This law sounds pretty Gardnerian in tone, but it does not agree with Gardnerian myths -- i.e., while Goddess created everything, she did not create Death itself. Life without Death offers no regeneration, as Life could not continue on its own; the God was outside of Her creation, and so He had things to teach Her about Death. (Those of you who prefer Starhawk's version of this myth are TOTALLY ignored in this law.)

65. I thought an HPs was only concerned mainly with what happens in Her Circle -- this Law seems to state that She is concerned with an unstated, but large-sounding, community. Other than that, this is Old Law.

66. I don't think this needs to be in the Laws, but it's a good idea for each Circle to consider.

67. This seems to be based upon the Old Laws' "If any in the Craft has any land...", but it does take that additional step into demi-deified clergy. I wish I knew whether Grove of the Unicorn was an authoritarian structure or not, but these Laws go a long way toward making its sound like one. (I'm not sure this group could "pass" Isaac Bonewits' "Cult Danger Evaluation Frame" [see end of Chapter 17] after having read this many of their Laws.)

68. Aha! Almost Old Law, and a "Burning Times" law! This is still a good Law , but it was formulated to keep anyone from knowing more than one group to "give away" if they cracked under pressure of Inquisition.

69. Old Law; probably should be included in #68.

70. Are we talking about pneumonia, herpes, or a cold here? You can do a lot better healing work *in* Circle (in my experience) than outside of it in many cases, and any Witch can decide for her/himself whether they are too sick to be in Circle and ask (or not ask) for healing. I suppose I find this law too judgmental, or too general.

71. Old Law.

72. There is no definition of Council given (the "Old Law" says "the Elders"), and the "Old Law" states that either the High Priest or the High Priestess can convene the Elders (useful if the HPs is out of town...) Otherwise, Old Law.

73. Generally, Old Law. Some of the restatements are difficult or unwieldy, but no real problems.

74. Old Law. (Actually, a bit of another Old Law is grafted in for clarification, but it doesn't hurt anything.)

75. In conflict with English(/American) Law, "Ignorance is no excuse," includes threefold law (which is NOT included in the Old Laws), and throws in the Lords of Karma again; rephrased, this could be an excellent law or rule, but I do not recognize a single source for this one. Some ritual magic, a little Hinduism, no Craft per se.

76. Nice thought; sounds like a personal addition.

77. As above, the "want of an offering" is not an issue in Old Law; the "lack of a robe" has never been discussed, since most groups I am familiar with generally work skyclad or negotiate the issue. Personal addition?

78. Nice thought; sounds like a personal addition.

79. So many flowers that (I feel) most would miss the point. I'm afraid I did, and I'm a musician.

80. Sounds like the Apostle Paul. The qualities I was taught to look for in a High Priestess were caring, leadership, patience, ability, and knowing when to ask for help. This cuts out faith (something Goddess says in Her Charge is not asked for) and belief (something she wouldn't be in Circle without). More flames on the topic of children.

81. Source? Sounds clergy-like to me...

82. Old Law states that a requirement of being High Priestess is youth; while this is not easily practiced in all covens, going to the opposite extreme is probably not much better. My personal experiences have been in covens where everyone takes their hand at practicing HP and HPs, with the HPs acting more like organizer and running coven meetings.

83. Ouch. Based upon Old Law, this Law removes the aspect of Love as an excuse (or Glands, if you like the Wombat Wicca version) -- and demands both judgement *and* atonement for a HPs who has left and come back -- even uses the judgmental term, "desserts", in dealing with the issue. The Old Law may have its drawbacks, but is a much better guide (I feel) than getting nasty about it. Oooh, they don't even get to hold office again! Many things are sacred, and certainly being High Priestess is one of them, but in my teaching, Love is a higher ideal, and the Craft has always allowed for it.

84. Old Law, with flames as above. "It is the lives of all of the Craft they endanger." Honor is still undefined in this context.

85. The use of the word, "Sabbatical" is cute in this context, but this should be a part of #83 rather than separating them out. Also, the phrase, "the Maiden should continue in that office" confuses the reader as to which office -- the law has already stated that she should reap the reward; does election of another person invalidate the election? It should read, "...the Maiden shall be the Maiden for the new HPs."

86. This is a new idea, and probably a good one: the Priestess and the Priest need not be the consort of the other, but are selected each by the coven or circle and are free to choose their own consorts. The one possible negative I can think of concerns the few times when Great Rite is held, and the feelings of their consorts on this matter. But then it lets the coven decide whether the choice was right nor not! If we're dealing with private lives, let them remain private. Based on Old Law, except that in Old Law the Priestess is chosen and She selects the Priest. This law again contains too many value judgements -- if you need a perfect person to run your circle, you will never meet.

87. Adapted from the Letters of Paul the Apostle, not the Old Laws. It is nice to state that we should be responsible for ourselves, but that is a part of being a Witch (oops, by these Laws, Witches are only children, so I suppose making "those of the Priesthood" adults is what this law is about). This also seems to state (per Christianity) that their mates, children, and house are all possessions; hardly a feminist or Craft perspective.

88. Reverse Christian. Extremely sexist, and no more or less bad than making the Man ruler of the world.

THE NEW BOOK OF THE LAW is published by: The Grove of the Unicorn, PO Box 13384, Atlanta, GA 30324. To order, send a legal size SASE. A small contribution towards printing/handling costs will be appreciated.

These comments have been made by Gerald L. Bliss, also known as J. Random Folksinger, Harry Smothers, and Mordewis ap Llys (and others in case you were counting). Address further comments to Lady Galadriel at the above address and/or myself. Send e-mail to harrysmothers@bigfoot.com. Also, please feel free to give pointers on how to make some of these comments in a less-judgmental manner (especially since my major complaint on these Laws was their own judgmental style). I need all the help I can get...

Atheist Paganism? Schizophrenia, Contradiction, Your comment here. All and none of the above are true. As more and more people start to explore the esoteric, what road will they travel? We seek to forge a path outside the wasteland of religionism and godism. We do not reject all aspects of religion, however. We feel that ritual, symbology, and many other apects of the religious life are valid even to atheists such as ourselves. We do not question the believers in all manner of religions who feel that their lives have been enriched, improved, elevated by their particular faith. Their feelings, no doubt, are true. We must, however, realize that they are the ones improving their lives.

In medical treatment a technique is sometimes used where a patient is given a pill containing no medicine but is told: "This pill contains very strong medicine. You will get better soon." The patients believe they will get better, and they do. This is called the Placebo treatment. This is what we feel religion is. Its benefits to us are created by us. We place no magical value in religion's sugar pill. Our paganism is thus strengthened. We are placed in control.

Control -- People tend to drift towards religions because they feel lost, they are out of control. We feel that belief in god / outside forces is just another arena for granting control to other things / people. Instead of the spiritual person's usual end, religion -- a replacement of the concern for one's needs in the here and now with a search for the pie in the sky (or the goddess in the sky, or whatever) -- we see spirituality as a way to explore our personality, feelings, life. We see ritual not as a vehicle for requesting assistance from gods, but as a way to focus our energies, a way to look inside.

Our paganism sees the earth not as a mother / goddess but as a cherished sister, or, to reject the gender symbolism, as our sibling. When the atheists look at, for instance, primitive cultures conducting harvest rituals to insure good crops, they would call it fear, ignorance, and superstition. We feel this is somewhat valid. We hopefully know that no god will destroy our crops if he/she is not appeased. We can instead see the beauty and wonder of the harvest itself, and ritualize as a celebration of this. We see the trap of trying to explain our experiences by giving credit to the supernatural. Not only do we reject the concept of the supernatural, we feel that a constant search for explanations is not productive. We value our raw experiences, and take them from the viewpoint that if we felt it, that is what matters.

As pagans we are willing to step beyond atheism. We know it is crucial to drop the safety and limitations of dwelling only in the rational. Fear and hesitation bring the loss of moments that can never be regained. We believe in ourselves, and are open to all that may reveal itself to us.

COWAN Communique #29 COmmodity/WAnkers Network P.O.Box 15, Altadena CA 91003 USA

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